


Fortitudo per Familiam

by JetnessAffliction



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Comfort/Angst, Gen, Melancholy, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-03
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 01:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2250135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetnessAffliction/pseuds/JetnessAffliction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twitter Request for Kaizuka sibling bonding. Pre-series and ep3 setting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortitudo per Familiam

“We’ll be okay..” Yuki bends down to wrap her arms around her little brother and her limbs seem to grow longer, larger around his motionless body. She’s only a handful of years older, but from today on she is his only guardian. When he only nods in response, she fights to keep from frowning, from dampening his dark hair with her tears.

“I’ll work hard, I promise,” She takes a step back and holds him at arms length, the confident tone in her voice at odds with her labored smile. Their eyes meet, and Yuki knows that they’re smaller, somehow, and full of doubt. She doesn’t say a word about her fear or her shock or her uncertainties as her half-dreamed images of their new life together start to form in her head, filling it with very similar new ones, promising ones, though they are tinted at the edges with melancholy. She doubles down her efforts, “for sure, Nao”, and forces her smile wider. Her right hand slips down to his, cradling it lightly. “I’ll make sure you have everything you need for school and fill the fridge up with tons of good stuff and pummel whoever breaks your heart with my brand new Kataphrakt.” 

He nods again. Convinced.

“So you promise too, okay? You study hard and get good grades and be a good kid brother and I’ll protect you and Mama and Papa will be proud!” She squeezes his hand tight, trying not to think how small it feels in hers, and swallows the lump in her throat.

He stays quiet, but that calm, placid expression morphs slightly as he smiles back.

 

* * * * * * * 

 

“We’ll be okay..” Inaho wants to bend down, to lay his head against her arm on the small mattress or be suddenly wrapped against her heartbeat like in memory. But he forces himself to sit upright, to keep from crumpling against her. They are a handful of years older now, and from today on he is wary about her role as his guardian. They are in a world that has suddenly distorted the gravity of that title. In the dimly lit space of the school’s infirmary, she only breathes quietly in response, sweat drying at her temples and eyelids twitching in pre-REM sleep as the painkillers and sedative that Dr. Yagarai had given her start to run their course.

For at least an hour, he doesn’t speak another word. He simply sits, watching over her, and doesn’t say anything about his shock or his fear as they fade back in his thoughts without taking root. He doesn’t say anything about the sudden ideas that flash in his mind and start aligning together, assembling themselves in potential checklists and forked paths. They fill his head, and he organizes them, sorting them out until they are sharp and articulated, and ready. He sits a while longer. He doesn’t say anything about his hypotheses or his potential error ratio, or his confidence or his rising sense of duty, but his hand slides across the thin sheet and wraps around her uninjured one, cradling it lightly. 

There’s a sudden phantom feeling of fingers in his palm sliding away, erased by a sudden rush of wind and rumbling, and all at once the small infirmary fills with dust and the grating sound of metal and concrete. 

Inaho blinks. He is transported back to the now and filled with an urgency that will surely exhaust him. 

He squeezes her hand tight. Tight enough to make up for years ago. Tight enough to last several years more. 

He nods to himself, convinced.

“We’ll be okay. I promise.”


End file.
